Apple’s Wednesday iPhone event was unusual in a number of ways. It was the first one emceed by new Apple CEO John Ternus, who officially succeeded Tim Cook earlier this month. It was relatively sparse, by the standards of Apple’s annual September announcements: The AirPods 5 got incremental performance improvements and noise cancellation across the entire line, and the Apple Watches got small hardware upgrades, too, mostly focused on battery life and health sensing, as well as an immediately controversial new “Audio Intelligence” feature that can listen to users’ surroundings at all times, summarizing “key moments” and allowing wearers to “go back in time” for up to 15 seconds.

Then there were the iPhones. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max showed up on schedule, with updated cameras, new colors, new chips, and longer battery life, and hundred-dollar increases to their base prices compared to last year — the cheapest iPhone Pro is now $1,200 — while the base model iPhone 18, which analysts predict will also get a price hike, wasn’t included in this event, and has been delayed until spring of next year, at the earliest. Pricing gets more severe if you want to upgrade your phone’s storage: A 1TB iPhone 18 Pro is $300 more expensive than its 17 Pro equivalent; a specced-out iPhone 18 Pro Max, with a new 2TB memory option, will cost $2500.

The big phone news, though, was about a device that is kind of not a phone: The iPhone Duo, a $2000 foldable device that Apple describes as like a “passport.” When closed, it looks like a slightly widened 5.4-inch iPhone; when opened, it expands into a 7.6-inch miniature tablet. Like numerous Android folding devices before it, it relies on a mechanical hinge and a flexible display with a seam (ideally, not prone to failure) in the middle.

Got my hands on the iPhone Duo. So far, the internal screen is really impressive, but stay tuned for my longer hands-on video soon! pic.twitter.com/yr9W8evvM5— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) September 9, 2026

Got my hands on the iPhone Duo. So far, the internal screen is really impressive, but stay tuned for my longer hands-on video soon!........

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